


Red or Blue?

by missditsydarcy



Series: "Bun in the Oven" Verse OneShots [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: I love him, M/M, Mpreg, gender reveal party, rin is kinda a little shit in this sry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:14:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24157954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missditsydarcy/pseuds/missditsydarcy
Summary: He’s not sure how Makoto bribed Rin into agreeing to even attend the party in the first place, but whatever it was, seemed to work—perhaps it was the notion of being able to race Haru like old times, seeing as though their circuits don’t seem to cross nearly as much as they’d like them to—and with this fact, not only was Rin coming to the party, but he was now a part of the main event, which might have a bit of something to do with his agreement as well.“Red or blue?” Makoto had asked Rin and his husband, Haru—Rin chose red, so Haruka was left, indifferent, with the blue flag that was supposed to signify a male child, while Rin’s was supposed to create significance with a female child; and that seemed to be that. From that point on Makoto had pretty much taken over the event, complete with having to tell both boys that whichever gender the piece of paper says might signify that the other man must lose…on purpose, of all things!Rei was obviously grateful that Makoto was being so helpful, so resourceful, but as the time came closer for the party, the more nervous that he became, for obvious reasons.
Relationships: Hazuki Nagisa/Ryuugazaki Rei, Matsuoka Rin/Yamazaki Sousuke, Nanase Haruka/Tachibana Makoto
Series: "Bun in the Oven" Verse OneShots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1525304
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Red or Blue?

**Author's Note:**

> hi hello! Look who finally was able to make the reigisa thing into a series?? ;) lolol   
> Anyways, sorry about the weakass title. I couldn't really find anything I liked, so this works. haha   
> I hope you like it! :)

“N-Nagisa-kun, should you even _be_ here?” Rei asks in a timid tone, cheeks burning red as all eyes fall upon him.

“Aww, Rei-chan, you worry too much,” Nagisa tuts, flicking his hand towards his husband while the other rubs his finally-budding baby bump to help accentuate the fact that, _’Rei-chan doesn’t really want to upset the baby, now does he?_ ’ “The party’s pretty much for me anyway, isn’t it? Why shouldn’t I be around to plan it, right, Mako-chan?”

The brunet about jumps out of his seat as he’s called out by his younger friend, quickly rubbing out whatever he had just written on his clipboard.

“Oh, aah, of course, Nagisa—you only find out a baby’s gender once, after all!”

“Yes but—”Rei interjects once the room falls silent for a moment, hand up and fingers pressing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose as he attempts to articulate what he’s been trying to say all along before his words got lost in translation. “Wouldn’t that ruin the surprise at all? Knowing…how the information will be revealed?”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Rin about snarls, picking at a thread on his jacket as the boring conversation is taking place— _he doesn’t even have any kids, why is he even here_ , he wonders. “There’s only two different ways it can go, boy or a girl; does there even _have_ to be a party involved? Can’t you just read it off a piece of paper and call it a day?”

“Now, now, Rin-chan,” Nagisa sighs in an airy-tone, hardly seeming bothered by his friend’s cynicism. “You wouldn’t understand since you don’t have any kids! It’s a party to celebrate the baby, and the baby shower is a party to celebrate the person _carrying_ the baby—you can’t have one without the other, it wouldn’t be fair!”

“So, is this you asking for a baby shower, too?” Rin deadpans, propping his elbow on his knee and then slumping so his chin is propped up by his hand.

“I thought you already knew,” Nagisa reiterates, a look of surprise on his face with just a hint of his normal brand of mischief hidden behind his hazel eyes and curling blond locks. He looks over from Rin and watches Rei carefully, like he’s expecting his husband to back him up in any possible way, and when Rei doesn’t respond in this manner—continuing to focus meticulously on his own clipboard instead of looking attentively at the most important person in the room—Nagisa clears his throat to ensure that his husband is looking right at him before he continues to speak. “Rei-chan sent out that planning email to everybody last month, didn’t he?”

“That—” Rei sputters, his cheeks turning a bit red as he franticly looks around the room, silently begging everyone to blindly agree with him instead of giving the true answer behind the inquiry. There…has simply been quite a lot to think about—the fact that there is an actual human being residing in Nagisa’s abdomen, who is not only growing and causing Nagisa’s already rather large appetite to grow at least five times larger than it already was, or at least it felt like that way. They were in search of a larger house, Rei had to find a new car that will fit a car seat into—not even to mention how many things that babies require that they have yet to purchase, which is pretty much everything at this point.

It’s funny, he thinks now, that the concept of a baby shower should be rather comforting to him in the moment, seeing as though that means that friends of theirs will be helping them with their coming financial burdens as Nagisa’s pregnancy vastly approaches the 20 week mark, when the pregnancy books suggest that most doctors will offer to tell you the gender of their coming offspring.

Everyone in the room, save for Rei, Nagisa himself, and Rin, speak up with various forms of affirmation, all eyes wandering as if the sight of another can generate the answers for each other.

“There was no email,” Rin speaks up as soon as the room falls silent for a moment, crossing his arms over his chest as he carefully watches Nagisa’s face contort in disbelief, and all the color draining from Rei’s face even before he adds onto this claim. “At least I didn’t get any email.”

“Rei-chan?” Nagisa says softly, lip quivering just a little as he looks in the direction of his husband with timid eyes, hand brushing softly over the expanse of his stomach like it would shield the baby from the truth. “Why wasn’t the email sent to Rin-chan?”

“B-Because,” Rei starts off weakly, being cut off moments later by Makoto who isn’t skipping a beat either, blessedly.

“Rei…must have figured that Rin wouldn’t really want to be a part of planning the shower…because by the time we were planning on having it, it’s the winter swim season and he probably won’t be around to come, no matter how much he wants to be there…”

Makoto then shoots Rin a gaze that suggests very strongly that Rin play along this time—but their ginger friend doesn’t seem like he’s in a hurry to acquiesce them, blinking absently before shooting his other professionally linked friend an inquiring gaze.

“Haru,” Rin drawls, unfolding his arms and placing his feet pointedly on the ground before slapping his hands on top his knees. “I guess that means that you won’t be able to attend either, right??”

Nagisa can be heard gasping before he looks at Haruka with a near tearful expression, lip quivering a little more before Haru grunts, himself, when Makoto nudges him in the side.

“I’ll be taking that season off,” Haruka amends, blinking nonchalantly as he looks his friend dead in the eyes as if he’s imploring Rin to have a change of heart. “I can swim here, too.”

“Yeah…but…you and Makoto are the only ones who have kids,” Rin says, almost defensively, sitting more near the edge of his seat as seconds pass, as if he’s planning a carefully calculated exit strategy as they speak. “You probably have…kid stuff…or something, to take care of; and that’s why you’re staying back, not because of some… _baby shower_ …”

“As a matter of fact, Misaki and Chou do have some important deadlines in February, but Haru and I were going to talk it over on the phone instead of making him miss work for it; but once we found out about Rei and Nagisa it was obviously more important for us to all stay here and be there for them,” Makoto explains, arms crossed even though his tone lightens significantly as he’s speaking of his and Haruka’s twin girls who just celebrated their second birthday nearly two months prior to this discussion. “But I suppose it’s up to you and Sousuke whether or not you want to…participate, and maybe get a sense of experience for your own children, down the road…”

“T-thank you, Makoto-senpai, Haruka-senpai, for being so considerate and helpful,” Rei says, interjecting his own voice in a sort of forlorn, defeated tone. He stands and then kneels in front of his husband, rubbing a hand over Nagisa’s belly before grabbing Nagisa’s hands and looking up to him with quite an apologetic expression. “But, Rin-senpai didn’t get an email because…I didn’t send one out—and Makoto-senpai and Haruka-senpai were just trying to be supportive when they said that they had already gotten one. I’ve just been really busy…with all the changes and with preparing for the baby that I…must not have thought that far ahead. Can you ever forgive me, Nagisa-kun?”

Friend’s strewn around the room agape as all eyes fall upon their pregnant friend and his husband, who immediately tears up and then wraps his arms around Rei, crying into the other man’s shoulder as his arms are lazily rubbing circles on Rei’s back, every once in a while fingers curling into the fabric of Rei’s blazer while the pair are mumbling things almost incoherent to everybody else in the room but the two with whom it matters most.

“Aaah, I guess Haru and I will be going, then?” Makoto asks awkwardly, watching and understanding fully in-depth with how his friend was feeling, having been pregnant himself two years ago, and with twins no less. “Rei you can let us know when you want help with planning the shower, okay?”

Rei doesn’t seem to dignify this with an audible response, just nodding against Nagisa’s shoulder as their two friends begin to make their exit—leaving only their least understanding friend behind with a look of incredulous surprise on his face.

“C’mon,” Rin says awkwardly, rubbing his hands together and then exasperatedly through his hair before he cocks his head and chuckles in a way that sounds more like a cough. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Nagisa—I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay, Rin-chan,” Nagisa says meekly, finally seeming to recover from this apparent ordeal. He’s rubbing circles on his belly as Rei pulls away and then sits back in his seat. “It’s the pregnancy hormones; they make you more emotional than normal, and I know you didn’t mean it when you said you didn’t care. It’s okay.”

Rin starts, grunting a bit as he tries to keep himself from saying something that will get Nagisa started all over again with the waterworks; and instead he claps his hands on his knees as he rises to his feet, making his way towards the door as well.

“Well, that’s you, maybe—and Makoto,” Rin sighs as he taps on the doorframe before he makes his official leave. “Some of us are just better at controlling our emotions…”

* * *

The sound of the clock is almost deafening as Rei sits in front of his laptop. He looks behind him for a moment to make sure that he doesn’t have extra eyes watching as he continues to conduct research for different gender reveal methods.

He groans, pulling out his phone and opening the messages that he’s been sending Makoto, contemplating sending him another affirmatory text just to make sure that he still had the piece of paper that currently held their destiny—to which their brown-haired friend would respond with saying that he had everything covered on his end, and that Rei should just stop worrying, already. Then he puts his phone back in his pocket and returns his gaze to the computer screen, scrolling through the page full of ideas and methods to make the occasion memorable. Some, suggesting rather bland things like popping a balloon or using party popper’s, or flares, among other arduous things.

Rei wanted this to be memorable, but not only for Nagisa—for the baby, and maybe even himself as well. There was no way, under any circumstances, that this party would be anything other than completely spectacular.

He just…had to come up with said idea.

Flitting through the google results once more, he sighs, leaning back in his chair before pulling his phone back out and dialing Makoto’s number even when he had just gotten done telling himself that he would do anything but that.

“Rei?” comes Makoto’s voice from the other end. “I still have the paper right here, honest…”

“No, no,” he says, flitting his fingers as if he’s waving off the thought, biting his lip before his free arm wraps around his middle, his thoughts now making him more self-conscious than ever. “I just wanted to ask you how you decided how to do your own gender reveal party…”

“Oh, aah, we actually didn’t,” Makoto says after a moment, a stunning, piercing silence streaking through the phone until the other man’s voice rang over the line. “We left it all to Nagisa, actually. I think if you’re out of ideas you should just ask him; I’m sure he would love to help.”

Rei doesn’t even seem to want to dignify this with a response, pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out an underwhelmed hot breath that seems to bubble in the space of air right in front of him for a moment, like an afterthought, before decides to do the polite thing and answer his friend anyway. “I—”

“I know you wanted to do this for Nagisa, Rei,” Makoto says, cutting him off seemingly unbeknownst to him as young voices are heard in the background. “No, Mii-chan, let’s not play with that right now, okay? Daddy is on the phone—Aah, Rei? Sorry, I was just saying that I feel like maybe Nagisa is feeling a little left out, and like maybe his life is kind of…spiraling out of control as his pregnancy progresses. Maybe you should try asking him about it—you might find this surprising, but Nagisa can be much more resilient than you might suspect when you’re not expecting him to.”

“Oh, I know, Makoto-senpai,” Rei says, almost exasperatedly, as he lets out a rather defeated breath before nodding along in a form of submission. “But I think you’re right. Thanks for your help.”

“Oh, no problem, Rei; glad I could help!” Makoto says cheerily on the other side, the two saying their goodbyes and then hanging up the phone.

Rei chuckles a little bit, still staring at his phone as he speaks out loud, projecting as he faintly hears a small gasp coming from around the doorway—knowing already right where he could find him, trying to listen in on everything. “Alright, Nagisa-kun; let’s hear some of your ideas…”

* * *

As per-usual, Makoto was right; it did Rei well to let Nagisa in on planning the reveal party. Nagisa was near bursting with ideas, but in the end, they ended up going with a certain destination-theme party that reflects them and their relationship history very well.

They had rented out the swim club for the afternoon with Coach Sasabe’s blessing, in hopes that they could utilize the pool to stimulate old and good memories when their friends and re-enact older events that will eventually end up as being the answer everyone was so sought-out for—but this wasn’t as easy a feat to achieve at first, and Rei knew he would have to ask his good friend Makoto for some help to make all of this a reality, as if he hadn’t bothered him enough already.

He’s not sure how Makoto bribed Rin into agreeing to even _attend_ the party in the first place, but whatever it was, seemed to work—perhaps it was the notion of being able to race Haru like old times, seeing as though their circuits don’t seem to cross nearly as much as they’d like them to—and with this fact, not only was Rin coming to the party, but he was now a part of the main event, which might have a bit of something to do with his agreement as well.

“ _Red or blue_?” Makoto had asked Rin and his husband, Haru—Rin chose red, so Haruka was left, indifferent, with the blue flag that was supposed to signify a male child, while Rin’s was supposed to create significance with a female child; and that seemed to be that. From that point on Makoto had pretty much taken over the event, complete with having to tell both boys that whichever gender the piece of paper says might signify that the other man must lose… _on purpose, of all things_!

Rei was obviously grateful that Makoto was being so helpful, so resourceful, but as the time came closer for the party, the more nervous that he became, for obvious reasons. Since they’re not going with the tried-and-true box of balloons or smoke bombs, among other things—it’s prone to more fallibility. The success of this party depends on Rin and Haru, and honestly Rei was beginning to feel as queasy as Nagisa had been the last couple of weeks of his first trimester.

He called Makoto more times, at this point, than he can count, Rei asking him if he was sure that he still had the piece of paper in his capable hands, and that it hadn’t become victim to the grabby hands of Makoto’s own children, or slipped from his grasp on the way home among other unlikely scenarios. Makoto had always assured him that the paper was completely safe, and that Rei was worrying too much, and that he had it all under control, as he had so many times before.

This didn’t stop him, of course, for appearing timid and disheveled when he brought Nagisa to the venue—making a beeline for Makoto as soon as his former-captain had been spotted. He was blowing up balloons that had very ambiguous-seeming question marks that didn’t give away the answer in any prospective, and with him he had his two year old twin girls who both were toying each with their own un-blown balloons, watching Haru carefully as he’s kneeling to their level and demonstrating just what they’re supposed to do before he uncinches his fingers and smiles complacently as the girls giggle at the sound that it makes.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to do anything?” Rei asks, worrying his lower lip with his fingers before they end up in his hair, preparing himself for the answer that he’s almost sure that he’s going to get.

“All that’s left for you to do is greet the guests, so you can help Nagisa with that if you want,” Makoto answers, taking a deep breath before blowing into the balloon, hard, before he nods, satisfactory, with his work before tying the end off and attaching the string to it. “Haru and I have everything else covered.”

Rei bites his lip, watching Haru resume his earlier activity, and he almost exclaims, but doesn’t when he realizes that it would be rude. It doesn’t look like Haruka is helping at all whatsoever; but what does Rei know about raising children, after all?

So he nods, sighing in defeat before he goes to stand by his pregnant husband, talking a mile-a-minute with one of his cousins, who very recently had a party just like this one, only they had chosen a much more common theme than they were—and he begins to go through the motions until his heart near stops when Makoto speaks up to everybody in the building.

“Hello, so glad everyone could come,” he starts off cordial, scooping up one of his children in his arms and then walking over to the edge if the pool as if to emphasize his directions. “Are we ready for the great unveiling?”

Then he goes on to explain the rules: Haru and Rin both have pieces of cloth peeking out from the bottom of their diving caps, and those pieces of fabric signify either a boy or girl—whoever wins the race will have the flag that determines the answer that’s on the piece of paper in his pocket.

Nagisa giggles, giddy for things to get started, asking if he can press the button to tell them start, and then bouncing on his heels as he waits for his friends to take their marks, while Rei feels momentarily like he can’t breathe, can’t watch.

But the familiar sound brings him out of his reverie, and soon Rei can’t take his eyes off of them as they jump into the pool and then surface as their bodies sway the familiar way of freestyle, Haruka’s favorite, he notes, as eyes trail and mouths gape while the two round the corner, surfacing again and the crowd cheering them on as they begin to make their lap back to the finish line which will determine the gender of their baby.

He starts, realizing that he hadn’t been keeping track of exactly where Nagisa was in all of this—obviously he wanted to be at his husband’s side when the answer is unveiled, undoubtedly. Rei makes a noise of protestant surprise as he sees Nagisa kneeling in front of the pool, cheering though everyone realizes they’re not sure exactly who to cheer for—the crowd getting loud and rowdy as Rin and Haru are neck and neck, halfway to their destination.

Rei opens his mouth, eyes on Nagisa, but before he has a chance to actually say anything the crowd goes wild, Nagisa cheering and trying his best to stand and simultaneously almost falling in the pool as Rei blessedly reacts quick enough to grab his arms and settle him before disaster strikes.

He hears people muttering, “a tie,” incredulously, but things don’t completely click in his mind until Nagisa speaks up even louder than everyone.

“A boy _and_ a girl? _Whaat_?”

“T-twins?” Rei sputters, his vision blurring, heart pounding, face flushing a little as he feels hands on his arms, helping him into a sitting position on a nearby lounge chair, where Makoto surfaces and offers Rei a glass of water.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Makoto says, chuckling knowingly as he pats his friend on the forearm. “Trust me, I know—but it’s not something that you’ll have to get used to.”

“What do you mean, Makoto-senpai, we saw—obviously both Haruka-senpai and Rin-senpai finished at the same time, and that means…”

“Rin was supposed to lose,” Makoto says, scratching his head before he lets out an embarrassed chuckle. “We probably should have just let him wear the blue instead…”

“Blue?” Rei questions, taking a sip of his water before almost spitting it right back out when it really hits him what his friend was insinuating by his words. “You mean—”

“A boy, Rei-chan, a boy!” He hears Nagisa before he feels him, wrapping his arms and practically himself around his husband as he peppers Rei with kisses. “Rin-chan almost ruined it but Mako-chan and Haru-chan already knew the answer so Haru-chan told me. Can you believe it?”

“Haruka-senpai already knew?” Rei asks slowly, looking over as Haru is already walking towards everyone, wrapping his arm around Makoto’s waist as Makoto presses his lips against the side of his husband’s head.

“Yeah…sorry! I couldn’t not tell Haru…and I knew he wouldn’t tell…,” Makoto says next, chuckling awkwardly as Haruka busies himself with playing with Makoto’s wedding ring, his own ears going red at the tips when his relationship with Makoto is an object of conversation, though the two had obviously been together for years at this point.

“It’s okay, Mako-chan, now you and Haru-chan will just have to have a boy so our baby will have someone to play with!” Nagisa croons, sliding to sit next to Rei and pointedly rubbing both of his hands over his distended belly. “I know you already have Maa-chan and Mii-chan, but—”

“Drop the -chan,” Haruka quips really quick, and then the friends share a laugh while Makoto quietly qualms over the insinuation that they were to just, _have a baby_ , just like that, like it was really that easy. Rei shares a knowing glance with Makoto, but things are soon dropped short as those familiar green eyes widen in surprise mixed with thinly veiled terror before an apologetic Rin comes into all of their view. Rei feels Nagisa’s grip on his arm, which he doesn’t remember his husband grabbing—and he involuntarily puts his arm out to protect Nagisa and…and their son from further harm, even before facing Rin directly.

“Hi,” Rin says weakly, rubbing at his bicep as he peers awkwardly down at his friends. “Sorry about… _you know_ …”

“Rin-chan, you can do better than that,” Nagisa prods with an accusing finger before he giggles to let the other men know that he was completely kidding with him. “Rei-chan almost passed out when you made us think we were having twins!”

“It—that’s not fair, Nagisa-kun, it really came out of nowhere!” Rei defends himself, his cheeks reddening as he puts himself on the spot and then pulls himself directly back off of it once more.

“I know, I know,” Nagisa consoles, patting Rei on the back and then turning his attention back to the conversation at hand. “But it’s okay, Rin-chan can work off his debts, very easily.”

“D-debts? What debts? It was just a stu—”

“Rin,” Makoto warns with his best and practiced ‘ _dad-voice_ ’, even though he wasn’t entirely a part of this conversation, and sitting a couple of feet away in a lounge chair with his own children.

“Okay, okay,” Rin huffs, throwing his hands up and then offering a sincere shark-toothed smile. “What can I do to make it up to you, Nagisa—“

“And Rei-chan! Rei-chan is his daddy too!”

“Yes, Rei too. I’m sorry…I just got caught up…”

“It’s okay, Rin-chan, this always happens when you race Haru-chan! But maybe you can work it off with a few diaper changes…once the baby comes…”

“What? N—”

“ _Rin_ ,” Makoto chastises, not skipping a beat—not even looking up from playing with one of his daughter’s ponytail.

“Alright, fine. As long as I’m allowed to wear a gas mask…”

“I don’t know, Rin, fatherhood kinda wraps its claws around you after a while; you might get bit by the bug after all…” Makoto teases, though his tone of voice might signify that he’s not necessarily meaning to be heard.

“There are more protective measures I can make, no problem…” Rin defends himself, holding his hands up like they’re adding weight to his argument.

“You’re being ridiculous…” Haru says, coming up from who-knows-where, and then everyone laughs again.

The conversations ensue, but Rei can’t help his eyes that travel over to Nagisa’s belly, where his son, _their son_ , resides—a warmth permeates through his chest as he realizes that their baby will be surrounded and loved by a family, however disfunctual it may be—no matter how else Rin might protest about being a part of…

It seems that everything really was going to be okay, as it turns out.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to follow me on tumblr: www.l1nkp1t.tumblr.com!


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